As of this writing, Madagascar is number one at the
box office - pushing Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
into third place. Imagine that? I really don't know
what that says about our culture but I'm sure it's
further evidence of its decline.

I
haven't seen the movie Madagascar nor will I probably
ever see it. I do like comedies, and I do like cartoons
but I from the trailers and commercials that I've
seen of this movie it's obviously directly aimed at
young kids that would giggle at the mere mention of
the word "fart."

Madagascar
the game is not unlike the console version. It's a
solid platformer that borrows heavily from the Super
Mario NES games of yesteryear. Hey, if you're going
to borrow, borrow from the best. With that being the
case you won't find much in the way of originality
in the gameplay.

It
attempts to utilize the characters in interesting
ways. There are five playable characters in the game.
The story revolves around a group of animals such
as a zebra, hippo, lion and giraffe that want to escape
from the New York City Zoo to experience the freedom
of living in the wild. I could tell you all the characters'
names but if you've seen the movie you already know
who they are. If you don't - you'll learn them here.
They are just to sickeningly cute to relive at the
moment.

Each
character has different abilities and must be used
at specific times in the game. You can't just pick
one guy and expect to get through the level. The hippo
won't die if she falls into water so she comes in
handy for leaps of faith. The Zebra can get into tight
places and the lion can double jump and roar at enemies
causing them to take off. It's not sufficiently clear
why you must use a zebra to charge at some enemies
instead of using the lion - other than to make certain
that you must use all of the animals throughout the
levels. I have no problem using all of the animals,
I would just like it to be better balanced and more
realistic. It feels too forced this way.

Both
the DS and GBA game are identical. There are some
very minor concessions for the touch screen, most
notably the one-touch switching of characters which
is very handy and much more effective than cycling
though the list as on the GBA. Other than that there
is no advantage to having this game on the DS.

There
are some collectibles in the form of coins that you
will have to backtrack to collect. For those that
just can't put a game down until they find and unlock
everything, this will add a few more hours to the
gameplay but it really doesn't do anything for me.
There's a two-player mode which is equally unexciting,
but at least it only requires one cartridge so you
won't have spent an extra dime to get something that
you won't like. The sprites are large and well animated
with some nice ambient music. There are some digital
samples which are sloppily thrown into the mix and
left to fend for themselves among the din of the soundtrack.

Madagascar
is not a bad game by any stretch but it really doesn't
have an identity of its own as far as the gameplay
is concerned. Young gamers enamoured with the characters
may not even notice and as such will have what they
consider a great game on their hands. As long as you
like it, it doesn't matter what I think.